Private Schools

Educating Elian: As some of the nation's highest-ranking
officials debate the legal status of Elian Gonzalez, the 6-year-old
Cuban boy who was rescued from the waters off Florida in November has
been quietly learning what it means to be a good American at the
private school he now attends.

Elian enrolled in Miami's Lincoln-Martí School last month
after Demetrio Perez Jr., who founded it in 1968, offered the boy a
full scholarship worth about $3,000 a year. A 1st grader, Elian has
been guaranteed the aid through high school.

Named for Abraham Lincoln and the Cuban independence leader
José Martí, the 600-student school is not
church-affiliated, but stresses the importance of building good
character through religion, community service, and discipline.

A 315-page Citizens Training Handbook, written by Mr. Perez,
discusses moral virtue, social manners—and democracy. Stating
that communism is "a system that treats the individual like an object
or an instrument of production," for example, it says that communist
countries like Cuba "have not been able to provide for people's most
basic needs."

The book is a supplemental tool in the school's character education,
said Mr. Perez, a member of the Miami-Dade County school board.

Mr. Perez says he can empathize with Elian. In 1962, at age 15, the
Cuban native left his parents behind to come to the United States. They
were later reunited. Both his parents were educators, his father having
worked as an education official in Cuba before Castro came to
power.

As of late last week, Elian was still in the middle of a tug of war
between members of Congress wanting to make him a U.S. citizen and
immigration officials arguing that he be sent back to his father in
Cuba.

Mr. Perez is adamant that Elian should stay in this country. "His
mother sacrificed everything, including her life, to get him here. And
I think that's something that needs to be respected."